The Greek media sector is characterized by a high degree of market concentration and a weakly competitive public broadcasting sector. The high degree of concentration compared to other countries is due, on the one hand, to the broad and cross-sector ownership and activity profiles of the leading corporations. On the other hand, it is due to the numerous interrelations between the companies, often in the form of extensive family networks and ownership structures.

Alexis Tsipras, then left-wing opposition leader and chairman of the Syriza party and later Prime Minister of Greece, once described the network of interests and influences between Greek politics, business and the media as the "triangle of sin". A typical feature of this network has been the many media companies that were artificially kept alive by their owners, in some cases by means of generous loans, even before the outbreak of the national debt crisis, despite high losses. Many of the media owners were simultaneously active in other sectors of the Greek economy and were primarily involved in the media for reasons of political and economic influence. Government-friendly reporting by the mostly family-owned media often resulted in the continuous awarding of state contracts and public loans to their own construction or trading companies.

The media business incentives created by this system of mutual dependence, coupled with a half-hearted regulatory policy, led to an inflationary high media density in Greece. In 2009, on the eve of the crisis, there were 13 listed media companies, 39 daily and 23 weekend newspapers, 14 weekly titles, 10 national TV channels and hundreds of radio stations - all of this for a total population of around 11 million.
 
The sovereign debt crisis that has been ongoing since 2010 has dramatically exposed the shortcomings of the Greek media system. The Greek media industry is one of the domestic economic sectors most affected by the budget crisis. In 2012, the Greek media were close to collapse. According to a study by the Reuters news agency, the total debt volume of the 18 largest Athens media companies was estimated at over two billion euros. The sales and advertising revenues of the media groups have been in free fall since the outbreak of the crisis. Advertising revenues in 2020 were around 1.2 billion euros, compared to 1.9 billion euros in 2010. The total sales of the advertising agencies even reached lows of less than 1 billion euros at times in the 2010s, but have now stabilized somewhat (around 1.1 billion euros in 2020). However, they have not yet been able to reach the level before the crisis (2008: 1.5 billion euros).

Many newspaper titles and television stations have already been forced to close down, including traditional newspapers such as the left-leaning "Eleftherotypia" or the conservative "Apogevmatini", which closed in 2014. The television station "Alter" had to close down in August 2011 after a 30 percent drop in revenue and a total debt of 350 million euros had already been recorded in 2010. The owner of Alter-TV and chairman of Real Media SA, Andreas Kouris, was also sentenced to four years' suspended prison sentence in early 2013 for unpaid social security contributions amounting to 9.7 million euros for employees of the TV station. Thousands of journalists have already lost their jobs since the crisis broke out. The lack of salary payments and salary cuts of up to 40 percent have been part of the everyday work of journalists and reporters in Greece for years.

General Information

Inhabitants: 10.72 million (2020)
Religions: Greek Orthodox (official) 98%, Muslim 1.3%, Others 0.7%
Big cities: Athens (3.17 million), Thessaloniki (0.81 million)
Form of government: Parliamentary Republic, 13 regions, an autonomous monastic republic (Athos)
President: Katerina Sakellaropoulou (since 2020)
Head of the government: Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (since 2019)
EU-member since: 1981
Unemployment rate: 12.8% (January 2022)
State indebtedness: 363.7 billion euros (2021)
Budget balance relative to GDP: 2021: -8,8% 2011: -9,1%; 2009: -15,4%;
Share of global GDP: 0,24% (2021)

Total advertising revenues (in euros): 2020: 1.2 billion euros; 2011: 1.6 billion euros; 2010: 1.9 billion euros
Television viewing time per inhabitant: 250 minutes (2021)
Large media and communication companies: Antenna Group SA, Alter Ego Media SA, 24Media, Skai Group, Alpha Media Group, Teletypos SA

Historical Foundations

The emergence of the Greek press can be dated to the 18th century, when Greek-language titles were published in Western Europe to support national independence movements in Ottoman-ruled Greece. After the founding of the Greek state in the 19th century until the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974, the publishing industry was considered backward, which was mainly due to the authoritarian and anti-democratic structures. The beginnings of public broadcasting can be dated to 1936 and the founding of the first state radio station. In the mid-1960s, the first state television station, EIRT (Ethniko Idryma Rdaiofonias Tileorassesos), was launched.

With the introduction of private broadcasting at the end of 1987, the Greek media landscape changed immensely. Economic interests gained increasing influence and the economic situation of media companies improved significantly. However, the close ties between publishers and political parties had a strong impact on editorial work. As a result, a strong party orientation can be seen, which is particularly evident in the regional press. In addition, the structural changes favored the emergence of large media companies, such as the now internationally active Antenna Group, or the Lambrakis Press Group, which was taken over by Alter Ego Media SA in 2019.

Despite decades of infrastructural deficits, the use of internet and digital services by the Greek population has increased. This development is due to far-reaching government efforts and measures, such as the "promotion of information and communication technologies", which has included several strategies for broadband use since 2005. This "National Digital Strategy 2006-2013" was initiated by the European Commission, which in turn also attested to a significant deficit on the path to an information society in Greece in its 2008 annual report. Greece now has an extensive fiber optic network throughout the country.

Newspaper

In the wake of digitalization, almost all previously established media in Greece are facing major challenges, with print media being hit the hardest. Even though the decline in the press in terms of sales, readership and advertising revenue can be described as a global phenomenon, the Greek press has been in a permanent crisis since the mid-1990s. The number of daily newspaper readers has been declining since then, the total sales of the national newspaper sector have fallen by more than 15 percent, with daily newspapers recording the greatest losses. After many newspapers were able to be kept alive for years through state subsidies, the political will to help newspapers out of the crisis seems to have died out with the outbreak of the sovereign debt crisis in 2010 at the latest. Many traditional newspapers have already had to close down in the past 10 years, such as the well-known daily newspaper Eleftherotypia, which was once published in Athens. It was one of the country's highest-circulation newspapers.

In June 2017, the financially troubled traditional publishing house Dimosiografikos Organismos Lambraki (DOL) came under the control of the shipping company owner Evangelos Marinakis after a public auction. In addition, the Russian-Greek businessman Ivan Savidis bought the bankrupt Pegasus Group after another public auction. Through 24Media, he publishes the well-known newspaper Ethnos, which appears as a daily (Ethnos) and weekly edition on Sunday (Ethnos tis Kiriakis). In addition, Imerisia is published as a supplement to the daily edition of Ethnos. The liberal newspaper Fileleftheros is published as a daily and Sunday edition by the Phileleftheros Publishing Group.

Newspaper readership in Greece is estimated at just 5 percent of daily subscription consumers. The market entry of new private television and radio stations in the early 1990s and the emergence of free daily newspapers and the Internet in the early 2000s were groundbreaking factors in this. Nevertheless, Greece still has a strong press market today. In 2020, there are around 280 local, regional and national daily newspapers in Greece. In 2016, there were 15 national dailies in the country (including TA NEA, Kathimerini, Efirmerda Syntakton, Dimokratia, Espresso, Ethnos, Eleftheros Typos, Avgi, Rizospastis), 11 national sports dailies (including Sportday, Goal News, Fos ton Sport), four national business newspapers (including Imerisia and Naftemporiki), 16 national Sunday newspapers (including Proto Thema, To Vima, Real News, Katimerini tis Kyriakis, Ethnos tis Kyriakis, Eleftheros Typos tis Kyriakis, Dimokratia tis Kyriakis, Documento and Avgi tis Kyriakis) and 10 national weeklies (including Parapolitika and Sto Karfi).  

In a country where 40 percent of the population lives in the Athens area, it is not surprising that the Athens press dominates the national market. More than half of daily newspaper circulation is recorded in Athens. In the other regions of Greece, the Athens press also records half of its sales. Only a few regions prefer their local newspaper, and even then it is usually only a second choice. Another peculiarity of the Greek press market is the strong Sunday press, which also mainly comes from Athens, since almost all daily newspapers also have a Sunday edition. Most Sunday newspapers offer a supplement or have increased their page count to meet the interest of a wider, especially younger, readership. 

On the other hand, the Greek press has already launched extensive attempts to cope with these new conditions. Many titles have been redesigned or republished entirely. To increase sales, most Athens newspapers offer additional services such as books and vouchers for travel, housing and other consumer goods. Although these marketing and distribution efforts have been effective and have somewhat halted the decline in sales, especially of the daily press, they have forced publishers to rethink their original offers, as selling editorial content without associated offers and products has become difficult.

According to statistics from 2020, national newspapers are at the top in terms of circulation among Sunday newspapers, with around 60 percent of annual sales. Evening and weekly newspapers share second place (12 percent), followed by sports newspapers (7 percent), daily newspapers (16 percent) and business newspapers (0.4 percent).

Tab. I: The ten largest daily newspapers in Greece in 2019

Rank	Newspaper	edition	reach	editor
1.	Ta Nea	50,000 – 100,000	nationwide	Alter Ego Media SA
2.	Kathimerini	50,000 – 100,000	nationwide	Kathimerini AE
3.	To Vima	25,000 – 50,000	nationwide	Alter Ego Media SA
4.	Naftemporiki	25,000 – 50,000	local/regional	H Naftemporiki
5.	ethnic group	25,000 – 50,000	nationwide	24Media
6.	Eleftherotypia	25,000 – 50,000	nationwide	Tegopoulos
7.	Dimokratiki	10,000 – 25,000	local/regional	Dimokratiki Media
8.	espresso	10,000 – 25,000	nationwide	Espresso Media
9.	reporter	< 10,000	local/regional	Premium Media
10.	rhizophrenia	< 10,000	nationwide	Communist Party of Greece (KKE)

Source: 4imn.com

Broadcasting

radio

Radio began broadcasting in Greece in 1926. Porto Programma (First Programme) was the first public Greek radio station to go on air in 1939. Today, radio in Greece is still an important source of information and entertainment for the Greek population. The fact that it is the most trusted medium in Greece is also shown by consumption figures - Greeks listen to the radio for an average of around three hours a day. The range of radio stations is accordingly large - there are over 1000 in total, most of which are privately owned and broadcast locally or regionally (in one of the 52 administrative regions). This is because only the state broadcaster has a license to broadcast nationwide. The most important private radio stations are in Athens (56 in the prefecture of Attica) and in Thessaloniki. Most private stations are not officially licensed, but are considered to be eligible for a license.

The first non-pirate private radio station was Athena 9.84 FM, which went on air in 1987 and was broadcast by the Athens Municipality. Today, with a few exceptions, municipal broadcasting has gradually given way to private stations. In 2017, two new radio stations went on air in Athens, while another was shut down. The new stations are Thema Radio, which belongs to the weekly newspaper Protothema, and 247radio, which belongs to the emerging Greek media group 24Media. Vima FM, after the sale of DOL in 2017, ceased operations at the end of the year.

In the private radio sector, the news stations Real FM and SKAI 100.3 FM and the music stations Melodia FM, Rythmos FM, Athens Dee Jay, Red and Easy 102.2 are among the most listened to stations in Athens. In recent years, the listenership of sports radio stations (Sport FM, Sport 24) has increased, and the number of web radio stations has also increased due to the establishment of the Internet in Greece. Accordingly, most FM radio stations now also have a web version.

As for public broadcasting, the revived public broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation SA (ERT SA) resumed broadcasting in June 2015. It should be noted that ERT was closed by the then conservative-led coalition government in June 2013 and replaced by a smaller organisation, NERIT. Today, the public sector operates a total of seven channels: First, Second and Third Radio, ERA Sports and Kosmos. In addition, there is Voice of Greece, which targets an international audience, especially the Greek diaspora. ERT also operates 21 local or regional channels across Greece.

Television

Television in Greece first began operations in 1960 with experimental broadcasts, and regular programming began in 1966. Today, it could be said that the Greek media landscape is dominated by television in general and private television in particular. Since their launch in 1989, private television channels have dominated the Greek television landscape, which today consists of 120 terrestrial television channels, most of which are broadcast at regional and local level, and eight channels that are broadcast at national level. On the other hand, the history of Greek broadcasting has often been equated with the Hellenic Radio and Television (ERT). Nevertheless, the emergence of private television channels has been disastrous for the public broadcasters. ERT has declined sharply in terms of ratings and advertising revenue. In fact, since the launch of private television channels in late 1989, ERT's three channels have experienced a steady erosion of market share. ERT's channels are financed 95 percent from license fees, the rest from advertising.

In June 2013, in an unprecedented move, the then conservative-led government decided to shut down the public broadcaster overnight. The Greek public broadcaster's radio stations fell silent and its television programming disappeared from screens. This move caused horror among opposition parties and trade unions. The opposition, led by the SYRIZA party, claimed that the government had fired ERT's 2,500 employees to prove to Greece's international lenders that it was serious about cutting the country's bloated public sector. A few months later, ERT was replaced by a new public broadcaster, NERIT (New Hellenic Radio Internet and Television). The government declared that the broadcaster would be independent (at least in theory) in line with its Western partners. In practice, however, the government viewed it as its own political mouthpiece.

In July 2015, the new left-wing ERT government reopened ERT, as promised to the population during the election campaign. The government rehired almost all of the employees who had been laid off. In 2016, ERT once again employed over 2,300 people (including 565 journalists, according to the ERT union Pospert). After a year of ERT's full operation, the public broadcaster's ratings remain low (about 11 percent of the television market share for the three channels). A few months after its return, ERT announced that it wanted to comprehensively restructure its programming. The goodwill shown by the then Syriza-led coalition government towards ERT suggests that radio and television officials are largely positive about this left-wing government model.

In 2021, television consumption in Greece averaged around 250 minutes per day, with the public sector achieving manageable audience ratings even after its resumption. In the period between September 2015 and August 2016, ERT channels accounted for 8.3 percent of television viewers. In contrast, private channels also had a clear superiority at this time. Antenna TV led the audience share with 15.7 percent, followed by 14.5 percent for Alpha TV, Star (10.5 percent), SKAI TV (9.8 percent) and Epsilon (6.9 percent). As with radio, most private channels are not officially licensed, but are considered eligible for licensing.

Internet

Internet usage in Greece has grown rapidly in recent years due to attractive offers from telecommunications companies and social networks that are now indispensable for many. In 2021, 78.5 percent of the Greek population said they use the Internet. More than three-quarters of non-users in a 2016 study cited lack of technical knowledge and interest as the main reasons for non-use. Almost all Internet users connect from home, while more than two-thirds of working users connect to the Internet at work and two-thirds of students use it at school. Half of users say they use the Internet in other locations as well, while only a third use portable devices. A clear majority of Greek Internet users (85 percent) consider the Internet to be an important or very important source of information - 69 percent of users use the Internet daily to consume news.

Social networks are widespread in Greece, as in most other European user numbers. The most used social network is Facebook, followed by Instagram. Overall, the services of US media groups are very popular in Greece. 5 of the 10 most visited websites in 2022 are the services of a US media group. The fact that the Internet is seen as an important source of information in Greece is shown by the fact that another 4 of the 10 most visited websites are news services. Indicative of the declining importance of print media is that it is not the online counterparts of the major daily newspapers that are found among the top 10 websites of Greeks, but sometimes completely different formats. For example, the heavily frequented center-right news site iefimerida.gr from the new media network Synapsis AE

Tab. II: The ten most visited websites in Greece in 2022

Rank	Webpage:	Description	Parent company
1.	Google.com	Search engine	Alphabet Inc.
2.	YouTube.com	Video portal	Alphabet Inc.
3.	Facebook.com	Social network	Meta Platforms, Inc.
4.	Protothema.gr	News	Proto Thema Publications SAE
5.	Skroutz.gr	e-commerce	Skroutz SA
6.	Google.gr	Search engine	Alphabet Inc.
7.	Iefimerida.gr	News	New Media Network Synapsis AE
8.	Instagram.com	Social network	Meta Platforms, Inc.
9.	In.gr	News	Alter Ego Media SA
10.	Newsbomb.gr	News	DPG Digital Media

Source: Similarweb.com

Regulations

Even before the outbreak of the major budget and national debt crisis, the Greek media system suffered from a number of structural deficits - some of which were historical and some of which were due to the misconduct of key players. The lack of quality content, excessive sensationalism and a lack of neutrality in party-political reporting, a backward information technology infrastructure and the high degree of instrumentalization of the media by politicians and companies were some of the peculiarities with which the Greek media sector was repeatedly associated.

The ongoing national debt crisis, which has such a firm grip on all social life in Greece, not only threatens the economic existence of the numerous media companies that are deeply entangled in the credit and debt swamp. Rather, the loss of integrity and social credibility of the media sector that comes with the crisis endangers the democratic legitimacy of the Greek political system as a whole.

The failure to report on negative developments and deficiencies in the country's financial and economic system before the crisis began is being blamed on the leading media. The general attitude that this was due to the media's involvement in the political, economic and financial sectors was further fuelled by news such as the granting of new loans to the private media group Teletypos in 2013. The tricky thing about the granting of the loan by four large Greek banks was the timing: on January 16, 2013, new supervisory structures to monitor the granting of large loans, as required by the EU, were due to come into force. On January 3, however, Teletypos announced on its website that it had taken out a loan of almost 100 million euros to "restructure long-term liabilities" and general business activities.

The ban imposed by the Broadcasting Council in February 2013 on "presenting the consequences of the crisis using personal examples", which is primarily aimed at preventing the broadcast of images of neglected citizens on television, as well as the dramatic fall to 84th place (2007: 30th place) in the current Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, continue to give cause for concern about the future of the Greek media sector. Reporters Without Borders justifies its ranking as follows: "The social and professional environment for its journalists, who are exposed to public condemnation and violence from both extremist groups and the police, is disastrous". As a result of such developments and the recurring scandals, the trust of Greek citizens in their homeland's media has suffered lasting damage. It is therefore significant that, for example, the leading daily newspaper, Ta Nea, generally does not have a daily circulation of more than 50,000.

A characteristic feature of Greek regulatory practice is the contrast between sometimes rigid legislation on concentration and lax or non-existent implementation of the relevant legal requirements. In 2005, it was even the European Commission that threatened to stop European financial payments if a planned media concentration law - one of the strictest in the country's history - proposed by the Karamanlis government was implemented. Finally, in April 2007, the EU Commission again decided to take Greece to the European Court of Justice for alleged violations of Community competition law. This time, the trigger was the ministerially ordered so-called "transparency certificate", which the Broadcasting Council could demand from companies that wanted to conclude a service contract with the state. The trip to the ECJ was averted after the Greek government gave in.

Sources/Literature

• Athens Daily Newspaper Publishers Association
• Greece's Economic Crisis Reveals Fault Lines In The Media, NPR, February 18, 2013.
• Greece – Media on the verge of collapse, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 12, 2012.
• Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP): European Commission case study report: Does media policy promote media freedom and independence? The case of Greece, December 2011.
• Introduction to INVgr's special section of South-East Europe, INVgr.
• Iosifidis, Petros: Country Report Greece, in: The Citizens' Right to Information: Law and Policy in the EU and its Member States Alexander Scheuer, Attorney at law, General Manager EMR, et al Study requested by the European Parliaments Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs., pp.322-348.
• Journalism in Greece: Before the Overseers Come, Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 8, 2013.
• Medialandscapes: Greece, 2023.
• Persephone Zeri, The Media System of Greece, in: Hans-Bredow-Institut (ed.): International Handbook Media 2009. Media systems in Europe, Baden-Baden 2009, pp. 321-331.
• Reporters Without Borders, 2013 World Press Freedom Index
• Similarweb: The most visited websites in Greece, 2022.
• Telekom Slovenije and Antenna Group Announce A Joint Venture, Ljubljana Stock Exchange, February 4, 2013.
• The “Triangle of Sin” That Rules Greece. Greek Reporter, December 10, 2012.
• 4imn: Top Newspapers in Greece, 2019.
• Greece's triangle of power, Reuters, December 17, 2012.
• The "forbidden" message, Telepolis, February 11, 2013.